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BALEARIC


'Balearic' is the name given collectively to the group of Catalan variants spoken in the Balearic Islands, Spain.
Some features of Balearic:

★ Most variants of Balearic preserve a vocalic system of 8 stressed vowels /a/,/ə/,/ɛ/,/e/,/i/,/ɔ/,/o/,/u/:


★ The Majorcan system has 8 stressed vowels , reduced to 4 in unstressed position (/a/ /ə/ /ɛ/ /e/ > [ə]), (/ɔ/ /o/ > [o]).


★ The Western Minorcan system has 8 stressed vowels /a/ /ə/ /ɛ/ /e/ /i/ /ɔ/ /o/ /u/, reduced to 3 in unstressed position (/a/ /ə/ /ɛ/ /e/ > [ə]), (/ɔ/ /o/ /u/ > [u]);


★ The Eastern Minorcan and Ibizan system has only 7 stressed vowels /a/ /ɛ/ /e/ /i/ /ɔ/ /o/ /u/ reduced to 3 in unstressed position (/a/ /ɛ/ /e/ > [ə]) (/ɔ/ /o/ /u/ > [u]), just as in Central Catalan. There are differences between the dialect spoken in Ibiza Town (''eivissenc de vila'') and those of the rest of the island (''eivissenc pagès'') and Formentera (''formenterer'').

★ Balearic preserves a phonemic distinction between /v/ and /b/, as do Alguerese and most varieties of Valencian.

★ Balearic is the variant of Catalan that has the strongest tendency not to pronounce historical final ''r'' in any context.

★ Balearic preserves the ''salat'' definite article (derived from Latin IPSE/IPSA instead of ILLE/ILLA), a feature shared only with Sardinian among extant Romance languages, but which was more common in other Catalan and Gascon areas in ancient times. However, the ''salat'' definite article is also preserved along the Costa Brava (Catalonia) and in the Valencian municipalities of Tàrbena and La Vall de Gallinera.

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